We absolutely need defense for government IT. That should still be smaller than what the government devotes to that task now, but at the NSA level, I get the feeling that most dollars and head count is not going to defense.
I think it is a legitimate question how much of an offensive information warfare standing capability a country needs when not at war, and what level of dirty tricks intelligence agencies should pull in peacetime to monitor adversaries. Particularly due to the non financial costs of this monitoring -- losing our moral standing as a free and fair country, incidentally monitoring citizens or those present in the USA, in violation of the constitution (especially due to the tortured "five eyes" sharing agreements, which, if they weren't governments, would be viewed as a conspiracy and some kind of constructive crime), etc. I judge all of this stuff by "does it make us safer", and at some point, it clearly goes the other way. I think that point is several hundred billion dollars a year less spending than what we have now (well in excess of a trillion). Maybe 50-75% less spending.
The real problem and danger to us, from the very demons that guard our country, is that they are not being properly restrained by a Congress controlled by primitivists, idiots, mentally deranged, corporate agents, the unprincipled, and psychopaths not suited for today's world and allow the security state instruments to operate extra-constitutionally with impunity.
Comments
We absolutely need defense for government IT. That should still be smaller than what the government devotes to that task now, but at the NSA level, I get the feeling that most dollars and head count is not going to defense.
I think it is a legitimate question how much of an offensive information warfare standing capability a country needs when not at war, and what level of dirty tricks intelligence agencies should pull in peacetime to monitor adversaries. Particularly due to the non financial costs of this monitoring -- losing our moral standing as a free and fair country, incidentally monitoring citizens or those present in the USA, in violation of the constitution (especially due to the tortured "five eyes" sharing agreements, which, if they weren't governments, would be viewed as a conspiracy and some kind of constructive crime), etc. I judge all of this stuff by "does it make us safer", and at some point, it clearly goes the other way. I think that point is several hundred billion dollars a year less spending than what we have now (well in excess of a trillion). Maybe 50-75% less spending.
The real problem and danger to us, from the very demons that guard our country, is that they are not being properly restrained by a Congress controlled by primitivists, idiots, mentally deranged, corporate agents, the unprincipled, and psychopaths not suited for today's world and allow the security state instruments to operate extra-constitutionally with impunity.